Cape Town — Malawi's Vice-President Joyce Banda made a bid to take control of the country on Saturday, announcing the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika and calling a Cabinet meeting.

Malawi media reported that the Office of the President and Cabinet issued a statement officially confirming Mutharika's death, declaring 10 days' mourning and saying the constitution would be strictly complied with.

The Malawi Voice and the Nyasa Times quoted Banda as directing that flags should be flown at half-mast, and that the public broadcaster should play sombre music.

The papers said top officials flanking Banda included army commander General Henry Odilo, police Inspector General Peter Mukhito as well as the attorney-general and cabinet ministers including the ministers of defence, finance and constitutional affairs.

The Times said Banda had avoided questions about who was formally in charge of the government, saying that the Cabinet - and the country - should rather focus on mourning Mutharika and making plans for his funeral.

The Voice meanwhile reported that deputy transport minister Catherine Gotani Hara had said the ruling party - which expelled Banda after a fall-out with Mutharika in 2010 - would challenge her assertion of power, and wanted Peter Mutharika, the foreign minister and the president's brother, to succeed him.

Malawi newspapers also reported Saturday that Mutharika died on Thursday, with some suggesting that his corpse was flown to South Africa as a ploy to give the ruling party time to deal with the succession.

The Nyasa Times quoted hospital sources in Lilongwe as saying Mutharika's survival chances were prejudiced by a shortage of adrenaline, which doctors needed in order to help resuscitate the president.

It quoted an unnamed doctor as saying: "It took us an hour before we could get some adrenaline from a nearby clinic managed by the University of North Carolina project."